FACULTY SENATE MINUTES FOR
November 28, 2000
(Vol. XXX, No. 12)

I. Call to order by James Tidwell at 2:08 p.m. (Conference Room, 2540 Buzzard Hall)

Present: W. Addison, R. Benedict, J. Best, G. Canivez, J. Dilworth, P. Fewell, B. Fischer, F. Fraker, R. Gruber, G. Kelly (S), J. Tidwell, B. Young, and A. Zahlan. Excused: C. Eberly, M. Toosi. Absent: N. Greer. Guests: J. Ryan, L. Wall and Maria Buerskens.

II. Approval of the minutes of Nov 14, 2000

Motion (Benedict/Young) to approve the Minutes of Oct. 31, 2000. Yes: Tidwell, Young, Zahlan, Addison, Benedict, Best, Canivez, Dilworth, Fewell, Fischer, and Fraker. Passed.

III. Communications

a. Minutes of the council on Graduate Studies – Nov. 7, 2000

b. Agenda for the Nov. 28, 2000 CGS meeting

c. Minutes of Council on Academic Affairs – Nov 9, 2000

d. Agenda for the Nov. 13, 2000 CAA meeting

e. Agenda for the Nov 28, 2000 meeting of the Environmental Health and Safety Committee

f. Copy of letter from Professor Bailey Young concerning Textbook Rental – Nov. 22, 2000

IV. Old Business:

A. Committee Reports

1. Executive Committee: No Report

2. Elections: No Report

3. Nominations: Bill Joyce has been contact and will be serving as a member of the Apportionment Board. Motion (Canivez/Zahlan) to approve Wafeek Wahby (Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences) appointment to the Library Advisory Board and John Stimac’s (Geology and Geography) appointment to the Apportionment Board. Yes: Tidwell, Young, Zahlan, Addison, Benedict, Best, Canivez, Dilworth, Fewell, Fischer, Gruber, and Fraker.

4. Student-Faculty Relations: There will be an External Relations Committee meeting on December 6, 2000 at 5:30pm in 1895 Room in the University Union. Any issues you would like the committee to address should be sent to Gary Kelly, Faculty Senate student representative

5. Faculty‑Staff Relations: No Report

6. VPAA Search Committee: The committee has requested that the faculty identify possible external and internal VPAA candidates and provide their names to Bonnie Irwin (cfbdi) so that she can forward a copy of the job advertisement to the person. At the present time the committee is developing a checklist to be used for the initial screening process of candidates.

7. Steering Committee for Technology Enhanced and Delivered Education: Guidelines and application forms have been posted on the TEDE Web site http://www.eiu.edu/~acaffair/tede.htm. Bill Gibbs in Media Services has a list of possible conferences and workshops related to technology enhanced and delivered education. In addition the list will be available on the TEDE Web site in the future. At the present time, TEDE is working on developing organizational models (3 or 4) for a new unit to oversee technology in the classroom. Suggested models will be distributed to the university community at a later date for comments

8. CASL Committee: The committee has invited Dr. Barbara Wolford to come to Eastern on Friday, Jan. 19, 2001, to lead an assessment forum. She is a nationally recognized person in assessment. Addison: Her specialty is primary trait analysis to make use of classroom-based assessment data, and also use that for academic assessment. She is from Notre Dame,

B. Fall Forum: The following is a set of tentative recommendations in the three areas discussed at the faculty forum on Eastern’s Educational Mission in an Online World. The senate would ask at this time that faculty look over the tentative recommendations and send comments and concerns to Faculty Senate Chair, James Tidwell (cfjat). Upon gathering information from faculty and further discussion of the issues in faculty senate a final set of recommendations will be adopted by the Faculty Senate and distributed to the University Community.

Technology Support: Infrastructure & Instructional Design

Tentative Recommendation 1: Create an organizational structure for academic technology needs that reports directly to the VPAA/Provost so academic needs of technology are more adequately addressed.

Tentative Recommendation 2: Create a technology plan that is future oriented with input from faculty from various disciplines.

Tentative Recommendation 3: Pursue additional funding from the IBHE/Legislature for rapid technology upgrading to achieve full Ethernet capabilities quicker.

Tentative Recommendation 4: Create a centralized academic technology support group to assist faculty in better utilizing technology in their classrooms as well as in developing Internet based course supplements and course delivery.

Tentative Recommendation 5: Create a mechanism that allows faculty to install their own computer hardware and software as well as provide minor repairs or hardware/software upgrades.

Tentative Recommendation 6: Provide adequate funding to hire and retain qualified technology specialists

Discussion: The senate felt that the creation of an organizational structure for academic technology needs would be cost effective and response to the needs and concerns of the university and its faculty. The development of a technology plan would allow academic and administrative units to identify overall technological needs that could be incorporated into a university technology plan that could be used to enhance our chances of obtaining state funding. Concerns were addressed that at the present time more data needs to be collected from academic units related to technological needs. Also, a concern was mentioned about if warranties would be voided if faculty installed software and performed minor repairs on their computers. Additionally, care should be taken that faculty that do not want to do their own installations and repairs be serviced in a timely manner.

Approval, assessment and evaluation of online courses

Tentative Recommendation 7: Determine a common definition for the terms being used. Examples include distance learning, web-based, web-enhanced, and web-augmented.

Tentative Recommendation 8: Assure that there is instructional design support for faculty members who are, by training, the content experts of courses.

Tentative Recommendation 9: Class size needs to be examined before recommendations for web-based online class size can be decided.

Tentative Recommendation 10: Methods should be identified to assess technology and student learning outcomes separately.

Tentative Recommendation 11: Appropriateness for development of online delivery of courses and programs should be determined by academic units and appropriate curriculum committees.

Tentative Recommendation 12: Additional faculty impute needs to be gathered concerning approval of online courses.

Discussion: The development of high quality online courses should be the goal of the university with the task of course

quality assurance being performed by department and college curriculum committees as well as the Council of

Academic Affairs. To facilitate the quality assurance process it was suggested that quality assurance guidelines be

developed and then used as criteria to be met before a course can be placed online. When evaluating an online

course care should be taken that the content of the course is being assessed and not the delivery method. One way

mentioned to do this is to supply students with the ability to comment on the technology separate from the course

content.

The Role of Technology in the Eastern Mission

Tentative Recommendation 13: That the resources of talent, time, and funding available to the university for technology be should applied to build and strengthen the electronic infrastructure; to enhance on-campus instruction; and to develop Web-based instruction.

Tentative Recommendation 14: Administrators, campus governing boards, and faculty and staff do all in their power to ensure that technological innovation is used to maintain and strengthen the quality of instruction that is central to the mission of Eastern Illinois University.

Discussion: The consensus was that courses chosen for placement online should enhance the overall mission of the academic unit and the university. Also, quality should be at the center of all initiatives taken to enhance courses or develop Web-based instruction.

III. Communications

A. Committee Reports

The Role of Technology in the Eastern Mission

Future Agenda Items